Modern Academical Dress
In Europe it is the exception rather than the rule for any costume to be prescribed for graduates. The general custom is for a costume to be worn only by academic or administrative officers (1). In Denmark students customarily wear a white linen cap for a few months after admission to university. This has a red ribbon along the bottom, and a small red and white cockade at the front with a small silver cross. In Finland doctors have swords, though these are only seen at the doctor's graduation. In Spain and Portugal gowns are prescribed for both undergraduates and graduates. In Portugal the capa e batina (a frock coat-type cloak and cassock of black woollen cloth) is worn without a hat. In Spain the licentiates (equivalent to masters) wear hexagonal black hats lined with black silk or satin and a tuft of the colour of the cape. Doctors wear octagonal black hats lined with black covered in loose silk threads of the colour of the cape, and a large tuft occupying most of the top.
Elsewhere a few countries, especially in Latin America, have gowns. In Russia graduates are presented with the enamelled university badge, which may be worn as lapel badge. In those countries with a British heritage, essentially those of the Commonwealth, the USA and Ireland, gowns and hoods are worn (2). The hood, in particular, as an academical vestment is distinctively British (3).
The modern gown of the Cambridge Master of Arts is the model for master's gowns in New Zealand. This is of plain black stuff (4), and may also be of silk (though this is not the practice in New Zealand (5). The back is gathered or rouched to give a definite yoke below the collar (6). The gown is calf-length, and is worn open in front. It has the typical masters closed, glove pattern hanging sleeves, with an oval horizontal slit to free the arms. The end of the sleeve has a cut on the inner border leaving a point at the bottom, but the upper point removed to form a smooth curve. The front is turned back to form facings some two inches wide, to the inside facings of which long black silk strings are attached (7). At Oxford, the gown reaches below the calf of the wearer, with a full gathered yoke behind and closed sleeves with crescent-shaped cut on the inner margin at the bottom and an opening at the elbow. This leaves two points, facing inwards.
The Cambridge Bachelor of Arts gown, the model for the great majority of bachelor's gowns in New Zealand, remains a black stuff gown with open pointed sleeves. The forearm seam is left open, except at the bottom, and is often used as an armhole. There are strings attached to the facings inside. At Oxford, the Bachelors of Arts gowns are full-style, traditionally made from black Russel cord (8), and with a full gathered yoke behind with long open-fronted sleeves.
Doctors at both Oxford and Cambridge now wear three sets of gowns, the full dress of scarlet cloth with full sleeves (white for doctors of music), the convocation habit of scarlet, murrey or violet, and the black or undress gown.
The convocation habits, which at Cambridge is known as a cope (9), and is worn only by the Vice-Chancellor. At Oxford it is the cappa clausa (10), and is more of the Tudor lay shape than is found with the Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts gowns. They are faced with silk of the colour of the hood lining, except for the Doctor of Divinity, which has black velvet sleeves. Traditionally, the facings of doctor's full dress robes were of different materials, depending upon the faculty. Divinity wore velvet, medicine satin, and law taffeta. The Cambridge Doctor of Laws wears a robe which is faced with pink and has tapering sleeves and wide facings. Doctors of Divinity wear cassocks also (11).
The Oxford sleeveless commoners gown now reaches little below the waist, although as it is still called the toga talaris it ought to reach the heels. The full-sleeved or bell-sleeve scholar's gown reaches to the knee. The gentleman commoner's tufted silk gown and nobleman's gold-laced gown are now disused. All these gowns are worn with what is called at Oxford sub fusc clothing (12). For men this is specified as comprising a dark suit (13), dark socks, dark footwear (formerly black boots or shoes) (14), white shirt and collar (15), and white bow tie (16). When a morning coat is worn the trousers must be black rather than striped. Bands, which otherwise formally disappeared for all other lay members below the degree of doctor (17)- not the DPhil- are also worn by the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors (18) on special occasions. They are still occasionally worn by others.
Women wear a white blouse, black tie, dark skirt or trousers (formerly trousers were not allowed, black stockings, dark footwear (formerly black boots or shoes), and, if desired, a dark coat (19).
Cambridge formerly required white tie, dark clothes, and bands for graduation (20). Now only dark clothes are formally required (21). This usually means, for men, lounge suit (or dinner suit), plain white shirt (or dress shirt), and white tie.
The Cambridge Vice-Chancellor wears, on Degree Days, a sleeveless scarlet cloak lined with miniver. This is very similar to that worn by the Oxford Vice-Chancellor in the fourteenth century (22), and is indeed, a lone survival of the original outer cloak or cappa clausa (23).
The academic dress of the University of Cambridge is now prescribed in the Ordinances of the University of Cambridge. In the 1958 Ordinances, student members of the university were required to wear their proper academical dress at all university lectures and examinations (unless exempt by the Council of the Senate on the recommendation of the Faculty Board concerned). They also had to wear them in the University Church, Senate-House, Library, in the streets after dusk, and at all times where the Vice-Chancellor by public notice so directs. Non-student members of the university are required to wear their proper academic dress in the University Church, Senate-House, Schools, and when requested to by the Vice-Chancellor by public notice (24).
In line with the gradual reduction in the use of academic dress except for graduation ceremonies or the most formal public occasions, by 1970 the Ordinances merely provided that the students wear academic dress while attending university ceremonies in the University Church or Senate-House. They were also to do so at all other times at which the Vice-Chancellor may by public notice direct that academical dress be worn. Non-student members on the other hand, were, in addition to the occasions at which the wearing of academic dress was formerly required, enjoined to wear academic dress generally on public occasions and at official meetings (25).
Members of the university not in statu pupillari were required to wear appropriate academical dress in the University Church, the Senate House, and the Schools, and generally on public occasions and at official meetings, and on all other occasions on which the Vice-Chancellor may by public notice request that the academical dress be worn (26).
Cambridge Master of Arts are required to wear a black silk or stuff gown with glove sleeves, having horizontal slits to free the arms, and with black silk strings attached to the facings inside. A Cambridge Bachelor of Arts wears a black stuff gown, shorter than the Master of Arts gown, with open sleeves not turned up with a cord but slit vertically from the shoulders almost to the wrist, and caught together at the bottom of the slit. The sleeve itself is left hanging behind the arm. It is also worn with strings. The Cambridge undergraduate gown reaches to the knees. In each case the buttons are of 26-line flat black twill-mohair. The Master of Arts hood is of black corded ottoman silk (27) fully lined with white silk. The corners of the tippet are square. The Bachelor of Arts hood is of black stuff, part-lined with white fur, the tippet bordered with fur. As an alternative, the tippet may be edged with white silk rather than fur.
The festal robe of a PhD is the silk MA gown, but with a facing of scarlet cloth, 4" wide, the full length of the front. The DD wears a black velvet cap. Doctors in festal robes wear a wide-brimmed round velvet bonnet with gold string and tassels, or a square cap in ceremonial in the Senate-House. Doctors wearing other gowns, and all other graduates and undergraduates, wear the square cap, the ubiquitous cloth trencher or mortar-board. This has a top of cloth, a tassel of silk, and a velvet skull-cap, edged with a black ribbon. Undergraduates have the option of appearing without head-dress (28). These may be taken as typical of modern academic dress throughout the Commonwealth, and beyond.
The hood remains perhaps the most important item of academical dress for identification purposes. If there are identifiable remains of the cowl, liripipe and cape, then the hood is said to be of the full shape. If there is no cape, it is the simple shape. The liripipe alone is worn, over the left shoulder, over an academical gown, in some universities in France, Italy, Spain, French-speaking Canada, and Turkey. The cape alone is worn over a gown in Spain, Portugal, and in some of the Spanish-speaking parts of the world (29).
The modern hood of the Cambridge Master of Arts is of the full shaped type, of black, lined with white silk. This consists of a cowl, the original headgear, and there is also a cape, which covers the shoulders. The hood is now usually worn with the cowl turned inside out for part of its width to expose the lining material, although this is not possible with the Oxford plain shape. Modern Oxford doctors and the Bachelor of Divinity and all Cambridge hoods have preserved the original shape more closely than the Oxford Bachelor of Arts type. Doctors at both Oxford and Cambridge now wear a hood of scarlet, with that of the Cambridge Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Laws being pink-lined.
Scarlet, violet or murrey gowns were approved by a sumptuary law of 1533 (30), and scarlet had been adopted by the doctors of divinity and of canon law c.1340. But it is only really with the great expansion in the number of different degree titles in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that the colours found in gowns and hoods increased to the dazzling array now seen, especially in the USA. At Oxford, even today, blue is used to identify the BM, BCh, BCL and MCh, while lilac is for the BMus, light blue for BLitt and BSc, dark blue for BPhil, black for BD, crimson for Master of Arts, white fur for the Bachelor of Arts. In each of these cases, the degree is identified by the cut and material of the gown, and the cut, material, lining and trimming of the hood. This has the singular disadvantage that there is no logical system which can be followed in designing the dress of a new degree.
Oxford doctors' robe and bonnet
Masters' gown and mortarboard
Bachelors' gown and mortarboard
Academical Dress in the United States of America
(1) The robes of the chancellors and other senior officers of the ancient universities were generally modified versions of the traditional academic dress. At Oxford and Cambridge, the chancellors adopted a heavy black flowered damask silk robe similar to that used by the Lord Chancellor, about 1617. These are trimmed with 3" wide gold lace and hand-made gold ornaments, and additional gold rosettes on the sleeves, and in the centre of the train. The full bottomed wig is not worn however, and is replaced by a black velvet cap, with gold tassel. These gowns are widely copied at never universities.
(2) For the full range of academical dress worn in the world it is necessary only to consult the work by Hugh Smith. Unfortunately, this is now many years out of date, and the proliferation in universities makes its replacement by a single comprehensive work extremely unlikely. Smith, Hugh & Sheard, Kevin, Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (AA Balkema, Cape Town, 1970) vols 1-3.
(3) Haycraft, Frank, The Degrees and Hoods of the World's Universities and Colleges revised and enlarged by EW Scobie Stringer (4th ed, The Cheshunt Press, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, 1948, first published 1923) 2.
(4) The traditionally Russel cord or synthetic equivalent. In Cambridge itself, and certain other universities in the United Kingdom, silk can be used. Again, the synthetic equivalents are now more common.
(5) Shaw, George, Cambridge University Academical Dress (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, c.1991) 10.
(6) A survival of the original square collar.
(7) Traditionally each is a ribbon 1" wide and 30" long, though they are now commonly somewhat shorter (perhaps 20"), and of artificial silk ribbon.
(8) Russel cord is a kind of rep made from a mixture of cotton and wool.
(9) The ecclesiastical cope, also known as the cappa, and in the Roman Catholic Church the cappa pulviale, is a general vestment. It is used by Anglican bishops at the altar in cathedrals. It was preserved in the Church of England because of its secular origin. It never was a sacerdotal vestment, although liturgical, being along with the chusable, a derivation of the cappa choralis. It had practically ceased to be used except at coronations, until the nineteenth century revival. It is a wide semi-circular mantle of silk or other material, fastened by a morse, and with a semicircular hood at the back. In the Catholic Church it is never worn at Mass, but is worn at other liturgical functions. It is worn by priests or bishops on solemn or ceremonial occasions. The term is also used to describe a coronation, state, processional, or choral vestment often worn by laymen. It is called in the Orthodox Church the mandyas (mandyas). True copes were formerly worn by Deans when presenting candidates for degrees at graduation ceremonies at Oxford.
(10) Which it is not, being neither of the original form, nor worn open.
(11) The DD habit was retained long after other Oxford doctors, apart from professors and those presenting for degrees, abandoned their distinctive habits, at the beginning of the nineteenth century- Buxton, LHD & Gibson, Strickland, Oxford University Ceremonies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935) 24. The cassock itself was abandoned by lay graduates in the seventeenth century; Hargreaves-Mawdsley, WN, A History of Academical Dress in Europe until the end of the Eighteenth Century (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963) 82. It was rare after the Reformation, though Dr Caius ordered its use by all members of Gonville College in 1558.
(12) "The following guidance on academic dress is given by the Vice-Chancellor with the approval of Council and sets out the main university occasions and the appropriate dress for each occasion".
(13) This is taken to mean a dark blue or grey suit, or a black coat and waistcoat with grey trousers.
(14) Venables, DR and Clifford, RE, Academic Dress of the University of Oxford 7th ed 1993 Oxford, 1st ed 1957).
(15) The shirt should be plain, without frills, pleats or marcella fronts. The soft downturn collar is now more common than the stiff wing collar, but looks somewhat anomalous, especially with bands.
(16) This should not be of the made-up variety. The white tie in particular being a survival of the clerkship of the university man, see Wells, Joseph, The Oxford Degree Ceremony (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1906) 68.
(17) Wells, Joseph, The Oxford Degree Ceremony (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1906) 67.
(18) The Oxford proctors, whose dress is essentially the full dress of ordinary MA's of the seventeenth century, retain certain other features now lost elsewhere. Their black gown has velvet sleeves, and facings and edgings of a broad yellow and a narrow red stripe, together with a black hood lined with ermine. A square cap is worn.
(19) Venables, DR and Clifford, RE, Academic Dress of the University of Oxford 7th ed 1993 Oxford, 1st ed 1957).
(20) Ordinances of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1958) Statute B Chapter VI.
(21) Ordinances of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970) Statute B Chapter VI.
(22) Wells, Joseph, The Oxford Degree Ceremony (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1906) 69.
(23) Rait, Robert, Life in the Mediæval University (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1918) 100.
(24) Ordinances of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1958) Statute B Chapter VI
(25) Ordinances of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970) Statute B Chapter VI.
(26) Ordinances of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1958) Statute B Chapter VI.
(27) Now artificial, naturally, in almost all cases.
(28) Ordinances of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1958) Statute B Chapter VI.
(29) Haycraft, Frank, The Degrees and Hoods of the World's Universities and Colleges revised and edited by Frederick Rogers, Charles Franklyn, George Shaw, Hugh Boyd (5th ed, privately published by WE Baxter Ltd, Lewes, Sussex, 1972, first published 1923) xi by note by Rogers.
(30) An Act for the Reformation of Excess in Apparel 1553 (24 Henry VIII c 13), repealed by the Continuation of Acts Act 1603 (1 Jac I c 25) s 7.